Railway agent.
Born at Durham, Ontario on 17 May 1876, eldest son of the Rev. Samuel Acheson and Margaret MacIntosh Starratt, he was educated at the public schools of Kippen, Ontario and the Clinton (Ontario) Collegiate. In 1892, he began to learn telegraphy and, three years later, came to Winnipeg where he worked for a few months as a telegraph operator in the editorial office of the Nor'Wester newspaper. In the fall of 1895 he went to work as a telegraph operator for the Canadian Pacific Railway, stationed successively at Marquette and Carberry until 1900 when he went to Winkler as station agent. In 1904 he was appointed traveling grain agent for the railway, becoming general grain agent for western lines in 1909. He served as general agricultural agent for the railway from 1914 to his retirement in 1946.
During the First World War, he served as a Captain in the 78th Battalion of the Winnipeg Grenadiers, during which he received the Military Order of the British Empire and two mentions in despatches. On 4 June 1901, he married Mary Elizabeth Croll (1880-1965, daughter of Rev. Robert Milnes Croll of Nesbitt, and sister of Hubert Alexander Croll) and they had two children: Samuel Croll Acheson (1902-1975) and Kathleen Margaret Acheson (1908-1996, wife of Henry Vance Echols). He was a member of the Dry Farming Congress, Manitoba Club, and AF & AM (Prince Ruper's Lodge No. 1).
He died at Winnipeg on 13 January 1954 and was buried in the St. John’s Cathedral Cemetery.
The Story of Manitoba by F. H. Schofield, Winnipeg: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1913.
Pioneers and Prominent People of Manitoba, Winnipeg: Canadian Publicity Company, 1925.
Marriage registration, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
“Ex-railway agricultural agent dies,” Winnipeg Free Press, 14 January 1954.
Obituary [Mary Elizabeth Croll], Winnipeg Free Press, 30 April 1965, page 27.
Obituary [Samuel Croll Acheson], Calgary Herald, 10 February 1975, page 39.
“Free Press Necrology Files,” Winnipeg Elite Study, G. Friesen Fonds, Mss 154, Box 15, File 16, University of Manitoba Archives]
Kathleen Margaret Acheson Echols, FindAGrave.
We thank Darryl Toews for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 21 April 2025
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